The present application is related generally to a vehicle service or inspection system, and in particular, to a procedure for minimizing the number of vehicle identifying parameters required to be selected by an operator of the vehicle service or inspection system in order to recall a set of vehicle specifications.
Vehicle inspection procedures generally follow a traditional routine. Initially, when a vehicle is brought into an inspection area, an operator or service technician identifies the vehicle to a vehicle inspection system to recall vehicle inspection procedures and vehicle associated specifications. Initial identification may be made by reading the vehicle identification number (VIN), often using a barcode scanner, and the data entered into the vehicle inspection system. Using the entered VIN data, the vehicle inspection system obtains limited information identifying the vehicle make and model of manufacture. If the vehicle inspection system is in communication with a vehicle service shop network and a customer database or shop management system, additional information about the vehicle or vehicle owner may be accessible from databases associated with the connected systems. Once the vehicle has been identified, inspection procedures for the identified vehicle are carried out automatically, or by an operator or vehicle technician under the guidance of the vehicle inspection system, and the resulting measurements are compared to the recalled vehicle specifications to determine if the vehicle passes or fails the inspection.
However, in many situations, the VIN data alone is insufficient to identify a vehicle's installed options and trim levels to the same degree of specificity with which vehicle wheel alignment specification data is correlated. For example, VIN data may identify a light truck as a 2014 Dodge Ram 3500 with a gasoline engine. However, the VIN data may not identify the specific configuration of the vehicle as 2WD or 4WD, the bed length, or the installed trim level. These details are manually provided to the vehicle wheel alignment or inspection system by the operator or vehicle technician. Upon entry of all of the vehicle identifying information, including specific vehicle configuration items which will vary for each vehicle make, model, and year of manufacturer, a matching set of vehicle wheel alignment specifications (and alignment measurement procedures) is retrieved from a specification database. The vehicle is then measured or inspected, and the results compared with the retrieved set of specifications to determine if any measurements or parameters of the vehicle are outside of acceptable tolerances or ranges. Results which are within acceptable tolerances or ranges may be displayed to an operator in a first visually distinct manner (and optionally in a numerical format), while results which are outside of acceptable tolerances or ranges may be displayed to an operator in a second visually distinct manner (and optionally in a numerical format).
The process of entering the vehicle identifying information, including all of the specific vehicle configuration items required to uniquely identify the vehicle, is time consuming, often requiring the operator or service technician to carry out a visual inspection of the vehicle to determine specific details such as trim levels or installed features. Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a vehicle inspection system with a procedure for identifying a vehicle (and subsequently recalling necessary specifications) which minimizes the number of specific vehicle configuration items required to be selected by an operator of the vehicle inspection system in order to recall an appropriate set of specifications for the inspection or measurement procedure to be carried out, particularly where the inspection or measurement procedure is insensitive to variations in some of the information contained within a full set of vehicle specifications.
It would be further beneficial to provide a vehicle inspection system with a process for determining if a vehicle passes or fails specific inspections utilizing only a minimum number of vehicle identifying parameters in order to recall an appropriate set of relevant vehicle specifications for comparison to an acquired set of vehicle inspection results.